ABSTRACT
There has been a long-standing interest in peripherality and its economic implications among policy-makers in the European Union (e.g. Keeble et al., 1988; European Commission, 2001). This mainly conceptual chapter aims to re-consider the meaning and implications of peripherality in the context of a contemporary European economy where service activities have become more important and competition is said to have become more knowledge-based. It seeks to assess the consequences of recent changes in the realms of business, work, travel and technology for the predicament of regions traditionally regarded as ‘peripheral’, and for the competitiveness of the firms in these regions. In doing so, it brings together two areas of literature that have been hitherto disconnected, namely research on peripherality and peripheral regions and research on the spatiality of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) – a group of activities that epitomise key aspects of the contemporary knowledge-intensive, service-dominated economy. This is a novel line of inquiry because previous research on (economic aspects of) peripherality in Europe has tended to overlook ‘tradable’ service sectors, and because prior research on KIBS has typically focused on ‘core’ and densely populated urban economies, whilst neglecting more peripheral economies and the service firms located therein (Hermelin and Rusten, 2007).
